NTIA: Almost a Third of U.S. Does Not Use Internet

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Broadband adoption continues to rise across the board, but traditional
disparities continue. In addition, 30% of the respondents in a survey of 50,000
said they don't use the Internet at work or at home.

The National Telecommunications & Information Administration says that new
Census Bureau data for a survey NTIA
commissioned shows that the poor, seniors, and minorities, continue to lag
behind other groups in adoption. (Click here to view a PDF of the survey.)

The Census Bureau survey has adoption at 64% of households, up from 51% in
2007.

The most common reasons cited for not having broadband were that it was not
needed (38%) or was too expensive (26%).

In rural areas, lack of access was cited by 11% vs. only 1% in urban areas.

NTIA is currently handing out billions of
dollars in grants to try and boost those deployment and adoption.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.